Sunday, August 26, 2018

[Jesus said,]56“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” 59He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” 61But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. 65And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”66Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. 67So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” 68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.

Several years ago, I was in a pastor’s continuing
education event,

with a couple of Christian therapists talking about their
work.

The presentation was in a conversational style,

and at one point one of them said this about work with
couples:

‘I always know when I’ve gotten to the real issue.’

I thought this was a little bit egotistical,

but then he said,

‘I’ve gotten to the real issue when they stop coming to marriage
counseling.’

Now, that’s a jaundiced view, perhaps;

borne out of one too many failed endeavors at helping.

These do take a toll on counselors, pastors, and the
like.

But there was more than a grain of truth there.

People, couples, families, churches, companies, nations,

communities of all kinds, shapes, and sizes

can get very good about talking about anything but the
real issues.

We even have a name for it – you probably know it –

‘the elephant in the room.’

It brings a hilarious image to mind.

A group of people standing in a room,

a huge gray-trunked, ivory-tusked, trunk-swishing, snorting
elephant in their midst,

and the people are asking each other

why they keep getting knocked over,

why there are peanut shells all over the floor,

why it smells so bad in the room,

and what these huge piles are all over the place.

Anyone from outside can see what’s going on,

but these people can’t, or won’t see it.

So it is when people can’t or won’t see the real nature
of a problem they’re facing,

because to see it, and name it,

would entail honesty, commitment, and a decision.

Jesus refuses to let the people

he’s been talking to about the bread of life off the
hook.

He names the elephant in the room,

that some of them do not believe.

They had chased him around the lake,

not to learn something but to get more free bread.

They have been questioning Jesus’ claims –

first asking how he could be who he says he is

when he comes from an ordinary Nazarene family.

Then they take him in an absurd literal way

when he says that he will give them his flesh to eat.

Finally, they complain that his teaching is too difficult

for any reasonable person to accept.

All of it dancing around the issue –

refusing to see the problem for what it really is:

that some of them do not believe.

It is not even, perhaps,

that they carefully considered Jesus’ claims

and found them wanting

on some sort of technical or philosophical grounds.

Rather, it is that all of their questions are
obfuscations;

efforts to avoid the elephant in the room.

The claim of Jesus involves faith and trust,

and faith and trust is what they do not have.

It’s not that Jesus presented it wrongly,

and if he had just worded his claim a little differently,

they would have gotten it.

It’s not that there are insuperable obstacles in their
way.

It’s that some of them are non-believers.

It’s not that they don’t believe in Christ;

it’s that they don’t believe in anything.

Jesus does them a huge favor by naming the elephant in
the room.

His words sound like condemnation,

but they are an invitation, a summons.

It is the last possible chance.

For non-believers can become believers,

but only if they are addressed with the real issue.

When they are shown the elephant in the room,

they may – they may
– be able to be honest about it

and make a decision to turn in faith and trust.

The word ‘decide’ comes from Latin,

in which it literally means to cut off, or to terminate.

One possibility of existing is rejected, the other
embraced.

One road is taken, the other left behind.

In the Old Testament,

Joshua calls the people to decide

between service to the gods of the ancestors

and worship of the God who rescued them from Egypt.

The elephant in the room is that the worship of the
ancestors

and the worship of God are mutually exclusive.

The people must know and know clearly

that a choice must be made,

a decision must be reached,

one possibility be cut off or terminated.

Jesus calls the people from constant obfuscation,

constant questioning,

to faith and trust.

Constantly taking offense at the exclusive nature of the
claims of Jesus